The bereavement care tech company Betterleave has secured $2.4 million in a funding round led by Chingona Ventures. Austin-based Betterleave Bereavement launched as a venture capital-backed startup in March 2022. The company’s bereavement care platform is designed as a benefit that companies can offer their employees who have lost a loved one, a pregnancy or […]
Aetna
Aetna, a subsidiary of CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), is leveraging a series of new benefits that, coupled with existing palliative care programs and ongoing hospice payment demonstrations, promise to keep patients in their homes and out of facilities. The new benefits are heavily focused on making medications affordable and addressing social determinants of health. Beneficiaries […]
Though nonprofit hospices now represent a smaller slice of the industry than in years past, they continue to care for more than half of patients in the United States who elect the benefit. The number of hospices operating nationwide rose to 5,358 in 2021, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). This is a […]
Federal regulators are cracking down on the private insurers that administer Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. In turn, that could dampen the growth of palliative care supplemental benefits in MA moving forward. Despite palliative care’s ability to lower health care spending and improve patient outcomes, it remains an underutilized service. That’s partly because providers are forced […]
Labor shortages reduced clinical capacity for Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED) during the summer months, which slowed hospice admissions growth during the third quarter. Labor headwinds bit into the company’s ability to take on patients, resulting in only a 1% increase in same-store admissions during Q3, coupled with a 1% decline in its average daily census. “As […]
Understanding payer priorities in defining the scope of quality is vital for hospices to thrive not only in traditional Medicare, but also in today’s value-based reimbursement climate. The nitty gritty details of data tracking and management matter when it comes to ensuring both a healthy bottom line and quality patient care. This includes performance on […]
Hospice acquisition volumes and price tags have hit record highs for several years running. Now, the companies that performed well under the pandemic’s pressure may be drawing more interest from buyers. While a sizzling hospice market saw a cooled start this year, merger and acquisition activity is still outpacing other health care sectors. Demographic tailwinds, […]
Hospice of Morrow County has joined forces with Ohio’s Hospice of Central Ohio, a member of a regional partnership of providers in the state. Rebranded as Ohio’s Hospice of Morrow County, the organization is now an affiliated member of Ohio’s Hospice, a partnership of nonprofit community-based providers that serve a combined 58 counties statewide. “Together, […]
As more of the U.S. health care system migrates towards value-based care, efforts on the part of payers and other stakeholders to promote advance care planning could lead to increased hospice utilization as well as earlier admission of prospective patients. Advance care planning is designed to identify patients’ wishes, goals, and desires for their care […]